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On St. Erkenwald’s Day, November 14, 1532, after a stormy crossing from Calais, King Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn, Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon, were secretly married in Dover (see fig.s 1. 2. and 3). Edward Hall, Writing in 1542, recorded the event in his Chronicles. The kyng, after his returne married privily the lady Anne Bulleyn on sainet Erkenwaldes daie, whiche marriage was kept so secrete, that very few knewe it. (Hall, 794). Three months later, early on the morning of January 25, 1533, five witnesses gathered in the king’s private chapel at Whitehall for a second secret wedding between Henry and Anne. The first secret marriage was to reassure Anne that he was going to follow through on his promise to marry her, (Starkely, 465) The second was to reassure the realm. News of the ceremony had been purposefully leaked in order to familiarize the people with the idea of Anne as queen, and to give the impression that the pope had granted Henry an annulment of his first marriage. (Starkely, 447-8) It was also tu ensure that there would be no question that the child Anne carried, perhaps Henry’s longed-for son, would be a legitimate heir to the English throne. These marriages were held in secret as a result of Henry’s failed negotiations with Pope Clement VII (see fig. 5) to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon The debate and controversy surrounding Henry’s pursuit of an annulment, or, as he called it, his “ Great Matter,” (Trueman) was inextricably tied to his need for a male heir. It ranged from the most intimate details of married life to the most public displays or royal power, including public executions. They formed an intricate web of religious and political intruiges, played out against the backdrop of the Reformation. This paper will cover two diplomatic events: First, Henry’s negotiations with pope Julius II for a dispensation to marry Catherine, his brother’s widow, and second, his negotiations with the Vatican for an annulment to that marriage, to enable him to marry Anne Boleyn. Catherine’s familial relationship with the Emperor Charles V presented an insurmountable obstacle in his pursuit of a second annulment. This would have profound consequences that resonate to the present day. The story begins on November 14, 1501, on another wedding day, this time of Henry’s older brother Arthur, the heir apparent, and Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Spanish monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand, and aunt of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor(see fig. 6). This was an arranged marriage by Henry VII, who hoped to forge an Anglo-Spanish alliance. After the wedding, as per tradition the couple was put to bed publicly. The next morning Arthur called for water saying that, “Gentlemen, I had been this night in the midst of Spain” suggesting that the marriage had been consummated.(Denny, 73) On April 7, 1402, scarcely three months after his wedding, Arthur died, probably of tuberculosis, making Henry the heir apparent. His father, Henry VII, was beginning to doubt the value of an Anglo-Spanish alliance, and was reluctant to marry the young prince off to Catherine, even though it was the custom, following Deuteronomy 25:5, “If brethren dwell together, and one of them die… her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.” After his father’s death, Henry—now King Henry VIII—was free to marry Catherine. He may have felt morally obliged to take his brother’s widow, in accordance with Deuteronomy, he may have felt genuine love for her, or he may have simply wanted an alliance with Spain. But there were hurdles to overcome. Since Catherine had been Arthur’s wife, Henry needed a papal dispensation to remove the barrier of affinity between them. According to Catholic canon law, Catherine, because she married Arthur, was related to Henry and could not marry him without special permission from the pope. His desire to marry Catherine also raised the question of whether the marriage of Catherine and Arthur had been consummated. This was a controversial topic, because the English maintained that the marriage had been consummated, and Catherine and therefore the Spanish maintained that it had not been. In a stroke of diplomatic genius, Pope Julius II used a word in his order or “Bull” regarding the possible consummation that could be interpreted as “Perhaps” or as “happens to be” so the sentence read “That is perhaps consummated” or “…that happens to be consummated”. (Starkley, page 86-8 7) Thus, the pope successfully avoided any conflict by satisfying both sides. Now that the pope had given permission, Henry was free to marry Catherine. No one was concerned about the biblical verse (Leviticus 20”21) which forbids marrying a brother’s widow. The two were married on June 11, 1509, just seventeen days before Henry’s coronation. On January 31, 1510, Catherine gave birth to a stillborn child, but Henry and Catherine were not unduly worried. However, by 1518, the queen had conceived six times, with only one surviving child (later to become Mary I of England). Henry was getting worried. Catherine was beyond childbearing age, and Henry needed a legitimate male heir to ensure that when he died his line did not end and England did not erupt into chaos. His father, Henry VII, had won the throne by force during the Wars of the Roses, and there were at least six male members of the House of Lancaster with better claims to the throne than his. (According to Professor Kane of the University of Connecticut) “The legitimacy of that reign is very thin.” In fact, before Catherine was sent to England to marry Arthur, her father Ferdinand demanded that the young Earl of Warwick be disposed of, because h